America's Talking - Trump vows to pause migration after D.C. shooting

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump said Thursday he will pause migration from some countries following the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House. The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 under a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans fleeing the Taliban movement. He was reportedly granted asylum this year. U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from injuries she sustained in the Wednesday shooting, Trump told service members in a video call Thursday night. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was in critical condition. Lakanwal was also injured in the shooting. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAelope, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. An Afghani National is accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House last week, killing one and critically wounding the second. That and other recent arrests of Afghan nationals raises questions, renewed questions, of the vetting process after former President Joe Biden allowed more than 100,000 Afghans into the U.S. after the deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. Joining me to discuss this is White House Bureau Chief Sarah Roderick Fitch. Sarah, let's start with the shootings of the two National Guard members. Tell us what happened.

It happened on the eve of Thanksgiving last week. The incident actually occurred just really a couple blocks, two, three blocks from the White House, where there have been National Guard members. There's right outside Farragut West, a very popular metro station, in fact, one that I used to use daily. So it hits kind of home. But, yeah, an individual who's now been identified as an Afghanese national had approached National Guard members who were there at the corner of the 17th and I. It appears from the video, although I haven't been able to confirm it, that he had, it looked like a revolver.

It was definitely a handgun. He chased them down and shot them. And I believe that the female National Guard member was shot in the back of the head from what I'm, from my understanding. Another National Guard member approached him, I believe shot him and then took him down with also with a pocket knife, tackled him. At that point, I had also talked to some eyewitnesses that were in the area. They heard four different shots initially and then some subsequent shots, which were probably from other National Guard members and then Secret Service was on the scene within a matter of basically a minute because it

happened to actually ride across the street from Secret Service from their headquarters as well this incident. So it was a very actually highly secured area. One where people felt safe. It was in the afternoon. And there's tourists in that area. I know if a couple people were there were in that area actually with their families who had been in town. And so it occurred. And it was a very sort of a shocking incident that happened. I received some of the papers from the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. indicating that when the suspect had been, when he was shooting, he was attacking, he yelled Allah Akbar, which is in Arabic, means God is great. That's what he was yelling. But as of right now, there doesn't seem to be sort of any like clear motive. He had been

working for or working alongside the U.S. troops in Afghanistan and was brought over in 2021. But anyway, Yeah. So there's a lot of questions that are still lingering. How did he get the weapon? How long was he in the area? These are things that I have reached out to FBI and not received an answer yet. So there's still a lot of lingering questions. But the biggest one is really about the whole betting process. And it was 190, about 190,000 Afghan nationals that had arrived between 2021 and basically 2024 or 2025 that had 2020. actually, that had been really unvetted that the, a DOD report stated in 2022. First, let me just honor the two victims by stating their names, U.S. specialist, Sarah Bexstrom, just 20 years old from West Virginia. She died from her injuries. Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, also from West Virginia. He remains in critical condition. Sarah, tell us about the questions about the vetting process. process. Back in the Biden administration, there was a report released that said many of them were not vetted. This incident and others, which we'll mention here in a moment, has raised concerns about

the Afghans who were allowed into the U.S. after former President Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan. Absolutely. Yeah. About like I said, about 190,000 have brought in. Some of the report even said some of them had some derogatory things on what they knew about them, but they didn't really, you know, their names, when it kind of comes from a failed state, they sort of rely on other people. I know part of the report, a lot of these, a lot of the evacuees, that's what they call, we're calling them the evacuees. They're placed on military bases. And one's even close to the DC area. In fact, Quantico is one of them that came in, essentially checked in, took their names down.

They, the personnel at the bases, military personnel, sort of relied on some of these senior Afghanis or some, you know, tribal people saying, hey, can you keep track of these people? The military, the DOD IG report even noted that they basically lost account for them. Some of their identities, they really couldn't be sure of, to be able to. honest, they did say they were not, they could not bet them. As I said, they had some of them had derogatory and some of them had some derogatory stuff on them. So it really was, they just kind of came in and they released them. The ones at Quantico, for instance, they were kept on the same side as like the FBI Academy. This, you know, raises some concerns as far as national

security, you know, stuff. FBI Academy, intelligence services for, and criminal intelligence services for, I'm sorry, criminal investigative services for the military, like NCIS. Their headquarters are also in that area. And these individuals, a lot of them were just able to sort of leave and walk off and wonder off, you know, didn't have any appointments. So it's really just hard, I think, too, is like trying to find where are these people, individuals now and trying to vet them. And it's very challenging as a trumpet's has even stated in other officials, it's very difficult to fully vet people when it comes from sort of a failed state. When there's not really the proper stuff there, they don't have the

infrastructure, the information to be able to say, yeah, this is what the, you know, this is who that person is and this is what they, you know, their background is. So it's very challenging. And then in that short amount of time, too, with that mass evacuation, with 190,000, like I said, individuals from there. It's very challenging. And I spoke with Tom Homan outside the White House in July and asked him about this and said, hey, you know, it's just something you guys be visiting. He said that they would. He was aware of the report, that they would be going back and reinvestigating. I have followed up trying to get some information to see if that process had begun prior to the shooting last Wednesday. Let me mention these other two incidents real quick,

Sarah, before we run out of time. Another Afghan man was arrested this week in North Texas, accused of threatening a terrorist attack against Americans. He also was released into the country by the Biden administration after the deadly withdrawal of troops from the country. And then you wrote this week about another Afghan national accused of providing support to the Islamic State was arrested Wednesday in Virginia. It just, I think, shows that,

These are very, there's a lot of questions about who's coming in and there's dangers. And I just would remind some people, it only took 18 terrorists basically kind of unbetted. They came in under the Visa Express program for 9-11 hijackers to kill initially 3,000 people. And so the fact that there's three already that have been identified and that have been charged sort of on sort of maybe terrorism charges, The one in D.C., that's not, there hasn't been terrorism charges. I know if there's been brought forth. But the fact that's happening, that's three in a week, raises a lot of concerns with some of these individuals that were allowed in and unbetted. Thank you for joining us today, Sarah.

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